Primrose nodded.

"Getting enough kelp to simulate part of a forest will be the toughest part," she said. "The rest we'll be able to get our hands on easily enough."

"Some of the kelp we have," Lilac said, starting to walk back towards the storage rooms. "But at least half of it will have to be fake. We just don't have thirty-foot tall kelp."

"It would be better if it was all real," Primrose said, "but we'll have to make do." She sighed slightly. "Is it bad that I wanted to sing to them and try to make everything alright?"

"Is it natural? Yes. It is bad? Very, very bad." Lilac shook her head. "I really don't think we want to give ourselves away." She spoke quietly, heading into the correct room to see what kinds of coral they had, as well as extra fish not on display elsewhere.

"You're completely right," Primrose said. She shook her head a bit. "This is going to be a nightmare, I just know it."

"Yes it is." Lilac sighed. "Alright, we've got a decent amount of coral here, and a good variety. We'll need to get the sand down first, and that will be a lot of sand. I don't know if we'll have enough on hand."

"If we don't, we'll have to order more," Primrose said. "We can't skimp on this. Other people might, but I can't do that in good conscience."

"I know. I was thinking I'd just run down to the supply store and grab more, throw it in my truck and bring it back." Lilac paused as a thought occurred to her.

"Crap. You realize we're the only two on staff with experience diving and swimming in those big tanks with creatures in them, right?"

Primrose blinked as she processed that and then degenerated into colorful profanity under her breath.

"We'll take turns," she said. "So neither of us has to deal with it the whole time." She shook her head. "You go and get the sand, I'll take stock of everything else. The sand has to go down first."

Lilac nodded. "What color sand? Does it matter? Or should I just get a mix?" Either way, she was going to be hauling a lot of sand around, and she wasn't exactly pleased.

"Just get something that would go with what we already have," Primrose said. "Not white." She lowered her voice a bit. "Something similar to home."

Lilac nodded. "Got it," she murmured. "I'll be back in a little while, then." She went to go get her purse and go to the supply store. She ended up getting a few hundred pounds of sand and brought it back, parking as close as she could to the back entrance and getting a few people to help her ferry everything inside. She texted Primrose to let her know.

I've got all the gravel and I'll get into the tank first to start laying it down.

Alright. I'm handpicking some coral and reef fish. Kelp is ready to go.

Inwardly, Primrose was worried, but she knew Lilac could take care of herself.

Alright. Start bringing things over as soon as you have them and I'll start setting things up.

Lilac set her phone off to the side, stripped down to her swimsuit, got an oxygen mask, and got into the water. She was nervous about this part, but the gravel had to get down somehow, and they couldn't just drop it in from the top. So she didn't have much choice but to take it in herself.

Will do.

As Primrose picked out creatures to go into the tank, she brought them individually to Lilac so they were ready to go as soon as the sand and gravel were down.

Bryn watched cautiously as the girl prepared to get into the water with them. He stayed well out of her way as she began laying down layers of sand and gravel at the bottom of the tank and just watched her.

Lilac made sure there was good few inches of gravel and sand at the bottom before she started placing the corals first, going back and forth easily.

Allyn watched as well, staying well out of the way, though his eyes narrowed a bit when he noticed Lilac didn't swim like a normal human. She swam with her legs together.

"Still doing alright?" Primrose asked when Lilac came up for the kelp. "I can take over if you want."

Lilac shook her head. "I'm already in, and I'm almost done. I just need to get the kelp down and secured. And I think we'll need to order some more fish and coral, it's still looking a bit sparse down there."

"I'll make some calls, see what we can get," Primrose said. "If nothing else, we can borrow from some of the other exhibits and then replace those when we can."

"Yeah. I'm just about done here, just a few more trips and I think the tank is as good as it's going to get until we get more stock in. I talked to the manager, and he said we'll get more giant kelp in a few days, along with another shipment of fish." Lilac pulled some of the kelp into the water so she could place it.

Primrose handed Lilac one piece of kelp at a time.

"For a rush job, it's not bad," she said, looking at what was already in the tank. "Not bad at all."

"No, not bad," Lilac agreed. "I'll feel better once it's finished and we don't have to worry anymore." Because she was still nervous about being discovered.

Primrose nodded.

"I'll go in next time," she said. She paused. "Remind me not to use the bathing suit with the cutout sides," she added. "That one might be a little too obvious."

Lilac nodded and took the last bit of kelp to be arranged. She glanced over at the two mermen once she was done before she swam back up to the top so she could clamber out.

"I'll feel better if we don't have to work with this tank again," she muttered once she was out and drying off.

"You know that won't happen," Primrose replied. "Murphy's Law. The director is going to make this our tank to look after."